ELVIS – THE EXHIBITION IN BERLIN
Coinciding with the thirtieth anniversary of Elvis´ death, a major exhibition has opened in Berlin at the Ellington Hotel on Nürnberger Strasse, just off from the Ku´Damm. For weeks in advance, giant posters advertising this event have been seen all over the city. So impressive has this advertising campaign been, you´re almost given the impression Elvis has returned from beyond the grave and will actually be appearing in-concert soon.
I chose to go along to the exhibition with my younger son Corin on August 17th, the day after the actual anniversary. Corin may hold football in higher regard than rock´n´roll but he´s always had a thing about Elvis. I was curious to find out what a (nearly) nine year old boy would have to say about this collection of memorabilia – the first time any of this stuff has been seen outside the USA.
As we enter the exhibition itself, the first item on display is a white suit.
“Look!” says Corin. “Elvis used to wear that.”
Just as we were admiring this, I read the notice:
“White suit of John Lennon (designed by D.A. Millings and Son, London, 1969)”.
John Lennon!? Hang on a sec...
Next to the suit was another notice. On it was the famous Lennon quote:
“Before Elvis, there was nothing.”
On the wall next to us, a black and white photo of the young Beatle, taken very early on in his career. Imagine... if there had been no Elvis, would there ever have been The Beatles?
Corin, I think, was still wondering why this wasn´t one of Elvis´ suits.
Alongside the photo of Lennon hang a series of black and white pictures of Elvis in Germany (taken by Lothar Winkler at Bremerhaven, October 1st 1958). This was Elvis in full army gear and not the on-stage legend Corin probably had in mind when we were on our way here and I´d been asking him what his favourite Elvis song was. Corin, thankfully, didn´t seem too put off by this lack of rock´n´roll credibility.
The main attraction of this exhibition are the brilliant pictures taken by Ed Bonja, Elvis´ personal concert photographer. Working for Elvis between 1970-1977, Bonja captured Elvis in all his jumpsuit-glory for most tours until the King´s untimely death at the age of just forty-two years old. Declining to take photographs when Elvis was noticably unwell and stuggling with his weight, the pictures on show here reveal a still incredibly beautiful man.
Bonja reckons he must have taken between eight and ten-thousand pictures of Elvis. Employed by Colonel Parker, when a photo was needed for a new Elvis LP, he would bring along a selection of prints for Parker to choose from. According to Bonja, Elvis had no say in which photo was used. That was always the Colonel´s decision. The first time Elvis would see which photo was being used was when he was given a copy of the finished pressed-up record.
Corin and I continued our way around the exhibition. I´d hinted to him before there would probably be copies of Elvis´ records, maybe his old guitar, possibly even his pink Cadillac (as featured at the last major Elvis exhibition in Berlin some twelve years ago). Sadly, none of this has been included in this current exhibition. Instead the visitor is confronted with a curious selection of personal artifacts and items he had simply given away to friends.
But, this being Elvis, even the most mundane things have a strange attraction. In the first of many display cases we see two pairs of Elvis´ sunglasses complete with original receipt (25 dollars a pair, bought June 23rd 1975, from Fisher Optical Dispensary, 1331 Union Avenue, Memphis, Tennesse) and ID cards used by members of the Memphis Mafia. Sunglasses? ID cards? We move on to the next case.
The earliest known signature of Elvis – on a library card – is here. I read the notice:
“On November 18th 1947 a 12 year old boy by the name of Elvis Presley took out a book “English Fairy Tales” from the library at Milan Junior High School in Tupelo, Miss.”
There are many other autographed items but there´s something rather special about that library card. Elvis. Twelve years old. Just a boy!
The first of many items of clothing as worn by Elvis comes next. The notice reads:
“Elvis blue puffy sleeved shirt.”
My first reaction is disappointment.
Blue puffy sleeved shirt!? Where are the Sun singles?
But, as always, there´s a story to go with it.
After just five performances of his summer engagement at the Las Vegas Hilton in August 1975, Elvis was forced to cancel due to illness. He flew back to Memphis and was taken to the Baptist Memorial Hospital. He removed his blue shirt (which had been part of his stage outfit) and, noticing the elastic on the right cuff was broken, gave the shirt to his private nurse, Marion Cooke. He asked her to throw it away or do something with it.
“Oh, I´ll do something with it alright,” said Cooke, “but I won´t throw it away.”
And here it is for all to see! Puffy sleeves and all.
Meanwhile, on the surrounding walls, Ed Bonja´s photographs continue to show Elvis in action throughout the early 70s.
Much as Corin seems impressed by these, he is distracted by Elvis´ jogging suit.
As worn by Elvis when he played racquetball, I found it a little difficult to get too excited by this. Elvis apparently loved the sport so much, he had a racquetball building built behind Graceland. Corin then spots the white karate trousers and, even better, the black karate outfit. He begins to watch a video showing Elvis dressed up in this gear and practising his karate kicks. Suddenly, for Corin, Elvis becomes more than just the King of Rock´n´Roll.
We move on, passing a display full of diamond rings, necklaces, cuff-links, and a digital watch (given to Sam Thompson, one of Elvis´security personnel in Vegas, 1976). There are dresses from various “legendary friends” of Elvis: singers Jeannie C Riley, Kitty Wells, Dottie West, and actress Natalie Wood. We see Frank Sinatra´s tuxedo and a suit from Sammy Davis Jr. There´s also a long black velvet jacket worn by Johnny Cash.
Just when you´re wondering if Elvis has left the building, we find a replica of his famous Aloha suit. Created by Bill Belew in Los Angeles, this costume impresses not just Corin and myself, but most visitors it seems. Belew designed stagewear for Elvis from 1968-1977, all in that similar over-the-top decorative style. The clothes must weigh a tonne and would look ridiculous on anyone else. But in Ed Bonja´s pictures, Elvis looks simply majestic.
Nearby, there´s the blue jacket worn by Elvis in the 1965 film Spinout. Elvis liked the jacket so much, apparently, he kept it and used it as part of his personal wardrobe. Then come various personal-hygiene items, a hair dryer, a television, pipes, and a selection of dolls and toys once belonging to daughter Lisa Marie. How about Elvis´ red crushed velvet bedspread? His blue pyjamas? His Bible (with certain passages under-lined by Elvis)? Here they are!
Another attraction of this exhibition is the twice daily interview sessions with the guys who collected all this memorabilia, Bud Glass and Russ Howe, and ace photographer Ed Bonja.
I thought this might have tested Corin´s patience if I´d sat him through all that. So the next day, I returned to the Ellington Hotel by myself. I was interested to learn what brought Glass and Howe together in the first place.
Russ Howe, growing up in New York, was given a copy of All Shook Up when he was ten years old. He played it over and over again until, after two or three weeks, the record was worn out.
“There was nothing else like it!” he explained.
Meanwhile, in Chicago, Bud Glass was experiencing the same thing with the same record.
They met each other at Graceland and were to become best of pals. Having both collected everything and anything they could get their hands on about Elvis, they decided eventually to start exhibiting together. They´d soon be writing books and making videos about their hero, traveling through America giving talks and answering questions from Elvis fans. It was through former bodyguard Sonny West that this current exhibition found it´s way to Berlin.
Bernhard Kurz, producer of the Stars In Concert tribute show in Berlin was deterimined to be the first to bring this collection over to Germany and, being a friend of Sonny West, it soon became a reality. While I felt there was a distinct lack of the rock´n´roll Elvis here (no records, no guitar, and – doh! – no pink Cadillac), another side of the man had been revealed. Most of the items on display were things he´d given away to his closest buddies.
But as Russ Howe explained, it wasn´t only Elvis´ friends who were to receive expensive gifts from the King. He tells the story of how Elvis read in a local Memphis newspaper about a black woman who had been born with no legs. She´d got married, had kids, but still got herself around by sitting on a board with rollerskates skrewed on underneath. She´d wear leather gloves and push herself along. Elvis was moved and wanted to help.
He went out and bought the woman the latest, most expensive electric wheelchair on the market, and promptly drove to where she and her family lived. The woman was surprised by this act of generosity and, as she sat for the first time in her new chair, was clearly overwhelmed. As Elvis was leaving, one of his friends said to him “I don´t think they even knew who you were”. Elvis replied, “It doesn´t matter, they just know someone cares!”
Photographer Ed Bonja, meanwhile, recalls going backstage before a concert and being struck by just how good-looking Elvis was.
“How can one man look so great?” he asks. “When I left the room, I found myself wishing for the first time I was a woman!”
It was a beauty that Bonja was to capture so perfectly in his on-stage pictures.
As I left the exhibition with Corin the day before, I asked him what had impressed him most.
“I liked the clothes,” he said. “And Elvis´ bed!”
For me, it has to be the photographs of Ed Bonja. Corin agreed these too were very good, and we strolled back to the Ku´Damm singing his favourite Elvis song.
“You ain´t nothing but a hound dog...”
(Elvis – die Ausstellung: 13.08 – 01.09.2007, Ellington Hotel Berlin, Nürnberger Strasse 50-55, 10789 Berlin. www.elvis-ausstellung.com).
- Clive
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